


Balance

by PeroxidePirate



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-07
Updated: 2010-07-07
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:44:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeroxidePirate/pseuds/PeroxidePirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Polyam is unbalanced. Isn't she? (Written for the 2010 Goldenlake Drabble Tournament, prompt: Same but Different.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Balance

It's easy enough for Polyam to avoid mirrors. She still prefers not to see her face.

It's harder to ignore the rest of her body. The leg is the worst, although the metal replacement is very good. But one half of Polyam – the stretch of skin, the shape of her breast, the movement of muscle and tendon and bone – is different. Every part has become unbalanced. Holding out both hands, she can see the damage done to her left side. Her arm remains weaker and her hand hangs, fingers useable but permanently bent. Her right side, head to toe, is stronger than ever.

Ten years, and it still seems strange.

It seems strange until she and Daja stand face to face, and Daja lifts her own arms. Her right hand, like Polyam's, is strong, unscarred. Normal. Daja's left hand, coated in the same warm brass that allows Polyam to walk, has grown stiffer as time passes. She keeps it tucked in her pocket when she can, to avoid explaining any number of things.

They stand face to face, and Daja presses her left hand to Polyam's, palm to palm: stiff metal to stiffer, scarred flesh. She laces their fingers together, in the space between their bodies, and neither hand seems strange.


End file.
